Sunday, October 22, 2006

Back in The Day

I was riding the train home from work last Friday when I overheard one side of a cell phone conversation between an eighteen or nineteen year old girl and one of her friends. The girl was talking loudly so a good quarter of the train could hear her. It was a little annoying at first, but then I decided not to let it bug me so much and listen to what was going on in this young soul's life.

The girl was describing to her friend about getting her ultrasound done. Apparently she was a few months pregnant and had found out that she was going to have a girl. As I continued my eavesdropping, I learned that this was going to be her second child. Her first was three years old; so that means this was her second teen pregnancy. She sounded very joyful about the news, and though she is terribly young, I have to admit I was happy for her.

I then heard her talk about having to go to class tonight. Maybe she was in college, but as I listned in on the conversation, she told her friend that she was finally going to get her GED. Her story was easy to piece together at that point. She got pregnant in high school, dropped out to have her child, and was just now getting back to finishing her education as best she could. Good for her.

As the conversation continued, she mentioned that she had no plans to go home to be with her parents in California. She said her parents didn't want her to have her first child, and they were really upset about the one on the way.

"My parents are crazy. When I told my dad I was pregnant, he told me to get an abortion. I'm just not that kind of person."

To hear one of our youth say that did my heart good. Perhaps the message that a baby in the womb was a human being was getting through to our youth. What she said next nearly floored me.

"My parents told me to get an abortion when I was pregnant with Kylie (her first, I presume.) Back in the day that's just what women did. My mom told me she had five abortions before she had me. Can you believe that?! It's just my brother and me now, but we could have had a bigger family. I'm just glad she didn't abort me!"

I said a prayer for this young mother. She is going to need all the help she can get. In her phone conversation she never mentioned a boyfriend or husband. I didn't see any wedding band on her finger. Likely she'll be a young single-mom of two. How she will manage, I haven't a clue. I presume part of my tax dollars will be funding part of her life for awhile as she likely qualifies for Welfare. While I wish she had made better choices early on, there's also the probability that she didn't have a supportive environment at home to guide her. Yet, somewhere along the way, she figured out that the life inside her womb mattered. A reality lost on so many of the liberal-elite.

What kind of quality life can she give her children? Measured in the material, probably not much, but there was something about the joy I heard in her voice that tells me the riches these kids will have is the love and commitment of their mother. I pray for Blessed Mother to intercede on this young mother's behalf. She said "yes" to life.